


That Awful Smile

by LiterallyThePresident



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Brotherly Love, Harley wants to help, Leo has issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-25
Updated: 2015-03-25
Packaged: 2018-03-19 12:52:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3610743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiterallyThePresident/pseuds/LiterallyThePresident
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harley isn't dumb. He's observant, he notices things.</p><p>Like how fake his favorite brother's smile is. Why is that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Awful Smile

      Contrary to popular belief, Harley was not a stupid little kid. He saw things, noticed things. Especially things that involved his siblings. He knew Shane secretly liked children's cartoons. He knew about Christopher's secret girlfriend and Nyssa's stash of porcelain unicorn figurines.

      He knew Leo was unhappy.

      Leo, his favorite brother in the whole wide world who always smiled for him and made sure he had fun no matter what, who helped other campers with repairs and once lit six torches from fourteen yards away, who always smiled even when his heart was breaking. Harley hated that smile, the smile that never reached his eyes. He hated that Leo never talked to him about his problems, probably not wanting to bug him or simply not thinking it was important.

       Leo didn't seem to think he was important at all, and that scared Harley. Because Leo was so so important to him.

     He was really good at hiding it but Harley saw. When Leo thought no one was looking, his smile slipped. And for a brief moment he would look so sad that Harley had to stop himself from running over and hugging him. He always seemed ready to bolt, like if he stayed in one place for too long something bad would happen.

      Leo had nightmares, nightmares so bad he set the room around him on fire. He'd fireproofed the blankets on his first day at camp, fireproofed the whole room and it's surrounding area with an almost desperate air. Harley knew something bad had happened to Leo in the past, but he never let anyone close enough to know. Harley had been woken up by Leo's nightmares. He'd listen with tears in his eyes to his poor brother sobbing and shouting in Spanish,

      " _No mas! Por favor, no mas!"_

_"Diablo. Ella tiene razón, soy un diablo!"_

_"Lo siento, mamá. Lo siento mucho. Por favor, vuelve!"_

      It broke Harley's heart. He knew it hurt his siblings to, to see their brother like that, to be unable to do anything. He felt helpless, they all did. Helpless to help their brother, their brother that wouldn't open up, wouldn't talk to them about his past.

      He'll talk to me, Harley resolved. _He'll talk to me and feel better and be happy whether he likes it or not._ With this in mind, Harley marched over to where Leo was working in Bunker 9. When he got there, Leo was hunched over a workbench, muttering to himself. Harley made sure to make his footsteps loud as he approached, Leo tended to flame up when surprised. Leo looked up at his footsteps and grinned his toothy grin.

      "Harley!" he exclaimed, "What brings you to this fine establishment? Come to bask in my glory?" he smirked and pushed his hair back in a way he probably thought looked cool. He frowned in confusion when Harley didn't so much as smile.

      "Is everything okay?" he asked "What's wrong? Have the Apollo kids been bugging you again? Because I could give 'em one heck of a sunburn if they-"

      "What are your nightmares about?" Harley cut right to the chase. Leo froze, dropping his wrench in surprise. After a beat he seemed to recover, bending down to get it, avoiding Harley's eyes.

      "Oh you know," he said a little too nonchalantly "Public speaking, losing my pants, Jason losing his pants. That last one is the scariest." He laughed, straightening up and turning to the workbench, fiddling with some scrap metal, a sure sign he was nervous.

      "Did you know that I once accidentally set a supermarket on fire in Texas?" he drawled, trying to change the subject "There was this girl in the grain aisle and I-"

      For once, Harley didn't want to hear one of Leo's stories.

      "Stop trying to change the subject!" he shouted. Leo was taken aback, Harley never yelled at him. Harley continued,

      "You always have bad dreams. You wake up on fire and screaming. You always fake a smile and never tell anyone about your past. Who... What happened to make you so unhappy? Please tell me, I want to help you, because you're my brother and I love you." Leo tensed up at that, "I... I just want you to smile for real. Please Leo, talk to me, let me help you!" Harley's eyes were getting watery, and he angrily ignored them, focusing instead on his brother, who had developed a sudden interest in the cracked floor at his feet. A moment of silence passed until...

      "It's... nothing." Leo said finally "Nothing to worry about. There's no use in boring you with some sob story. It's in the past, so don't worry about it, okay?" He smiled, that _awful_ smile, and reached his hand out to ruffle Harley's hair. Harley ducked out of the way.

      "If it was really nothing then it would bother you so much" he said "You'd have no problem telling me what's wrong."

      "I told you, it's nothing to worry about" Leo replied, turning back to the workbench.

      "But I do worry" Leo flinched at that. "Please, I just want you to be happy"

      "Enough, Harley." Leo said through his teeth. Harley stepped forward, pleading.

      "Why? Why won't you tell me anything? Why won't you let me in, let anyone in? Why do you keep everything hidden and never let anyone help you? We worry about you, Leo. Can't you see that?" Harley demanded, not seeing Leo's growing agitation.

      "Harley-" he said in a warning tone.

      "Why won't you just _let us help you?"_

      "I killed my mother when I was eight!" Leo finally snapped, fire momentarily flaring up from his hands before he extinguished it. "I killed her and burned our machine shop, _our home_ , to the ground. I watched them pull her charred corpse from the wreckage. My remaining family cast me out, called me horrible names; devil, murderer, monster... and they were right!" Leo was pacing now, his hair burning in his agitation. Harley, through his horror, opened his mouth to protest, those people weren't right! No one could be more wrong, but Leo wasn't finished.

      "I ran away from six different foster homes, four of which abused me. I once burned one of my foster sisters so badly she had to hospitalized." Leo finally stopped pacing and looked at him, eyes burning.

      "I keep my distance because if I don't, I'll burn someone I love. Because that's what always happens. Because I'm bad luck, all I ever do is hurt people. Fire is a curse, all it can do is destroy!" He was crying now, tears falling from his eyes and evaporating on his cheeks. He put his head in his hands, sobbing quietly.

      All this new information flitting through his head, painting his brother in a different light. He knew Leo had a tough life but... _gods_. Leo was stronger than Harley could ever hope to be, and he felt his admiration for Leo grow even stronger. But one thing bothered him...

      "Why... why did you kill your mom?" Harley asked gingerly. Leo stiffened, and then all the air seemed to rush out of him.

      "It was an accident. I didn't mean to-I never wanted-I..." He took in a shuddering breath, and let out a broken whisper " _Mama..._ " Harley's heart ached. Even more so when he thought of little Leo, tiny, alone, and afraid, being rebuffed by his family. The people who were supposed to love him, like Harley and the rest of Hephaestus cabin did.

      And Harley hated Leo's family, foster and otherwise. He hated the people who abused him, hurt him, made him hate himself like this. He wanted to find each and every one of them and beat them up for messing up his brother this badly.

      But Leo needed him now. Harley ran to Leo, throwing his arms around him and burying his face in his stomach. Leo went still for a moment, hands resting hesitantly on Harley's shoulders. Then, to Harley's great surprise, those hands gripped his shoulders and shoved him away. Harley fell backwards and Leo scrambled back so the workbench was a barrier between them.

      "Did you hear anything I just said!?" Leo yelled, his southern accent momentarily thickening, "I'm a murderer, a _diablo_! People who get near me get burned." Harley shook his head frantically.

     "That's not true! You said yourself it was an accident. It's not your-"

      "Don't you dare say it wasn't my fault!" Leo shouted. Harley moved quickly, racing around the bench before Leo could react and throwing his arms again around him, tightening his grip in case Leo tried to throw him off again.

      "It wasn't." he insisted "You were eight, my age." The thought disturbed Harley. "You've been through so much and kept smiling, you think you're bad luck but Hephaestus cabin has never been better. We've never been happier. I love you, Nyssa, Jake, and the others love you, and I know Jason and Piper do too." Harley propped his chin on Leo's stomach to properly look at him, smiling in a way he hoped was reassuring. Leo looked down at him with shock. When was the last time anyone told him they loved him?

      Slowly and carefully, Leo knelt down and wrapped his shaking arms around Harley in return. Harley basked in the embrace, petting Leo's hair soothingly. The thought occurred to him that, with time and love, and the help of his siblings, maybe he could help repair the repairman.

**Author's Note:**

> Not my best work, I know. I couldn't sleep so I wrote this. Harley needs to show up in more fics. Let me know what you think. 
> 
>  
> 
> (I headcanon that Leo has a southern accent, being from Texas and all)


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